(WXYZ) — As the war with Iran closes in on one month, the conflict is driving up diesel and fertilizer costs for farmers in metro Detroit.
Watch Whitney Burney's video report:
Iran and the U.S. exchanged threats over the weekend regarding the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump gave the country 48 hours to open the critical waterway or face "obliteration" to its power plants. Iran fired back, saying it would close the strait indefinitely if that happened. As of Monday, President Trump extended the deadline to five days for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.
While Brent crude oil prices dropped Monday morning from $112 a barrel to $100, costs at the pump continue to rise. In metro Detroit, gas is at an average price of $3.93 a gallon. Diesel is currently at $4.93 a gallon on average.
For farmers, who rely on diesel fuel to run their equipment, the rising costs have presented challenges to their operation.
At Debuck Family Farm in Belleville, Scott and Eric Debuck work nonstop from March until December. Their family farm has grown and harvested hundreds of acres of sod every year since the 1980s.
"The sod industry is much different than traditional farming. We like to call it farming on steroids. It’s very intense. It’s every day," Scott Debuck said.
"In the springtime, we’re fertilizing. We’re getting the fields prepped. We’re mowing. So, we’re out there using our tractors and diesel. We’re rolling," Scott Debuck said as he described the process.
On the farm, there are multiple 1,000-gallon diesel tanks that run everything from trucks to irrigation pumps to tractors. Every time they have to refill them, which could be once a week or every two weeks, it costs thousands of dollars.
"When we irrigate, just imagine how much you irrigate your yard. Imagine 300-400 yards. That’s what we have to do. We have large diesel pumps pumping out 1,200 gallons a minute and we have four of them, so you can imagine the water that we use to irrigate," said Scott Debuck. "Sometimes our Diesel bill in the summer can be, just for irrigation sometimes, up to $5,000 a week."
The Debucks say for every dollar that fuel rises, it's thousands of dollars in additional costs for them. The farmers say one of their machines, the autostack, which harvests the sod, has a 40-gallon tank that is refilled daily. The Debuck family has three of these machines in addition to tractors and trucks. Although not all of the machines run every day.
"We’re just getting ready to kick the season off, so it’s going to hurt and we’re going to have to absorb some of that cost because you can’t push it all off to the consumer because the price of sod would be too high," Eric Debuck said.
If heightened diesel prices were not enough of a pain point, fertilizer is expected to cost more. The Debucks said the price has already increased about 30-40% higher in the last year.
WEB EXTRA: Farmer Scott Debuck explains what higher diesel prices means for a farm and the farmer
"At this particular point, are you more concerned about the diesel costs or fertilizer?" 7 News Detroit's Whitney Burney asked.
"Both. This grass here needs fertilizer on it. So we’ll have to hit this grass right here in the next week or so. I mean, you see how big this field is. That eats up a lot of fertilizer," Scott Debuck said as the two stood in one of their sod fields.
"So costs are likely going up thousands at minimum," Whitney asked.
"Tens of thousands," said Scott.
The DeBucks predict some farmers will begin growing crops that require less fertilizer, which could cause a shortage of other crops like corn. They warned that not every farm will make it to the other side of this economic challenge.
"I think it’s common that you’ll see a lot of farms just sell because we’re tired. We’re exhausted. The money is not there like it used to be there and it’s hard to pass it to the next generation if you’re struggling," Scott DeBuck said.
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